A26796:401
The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…
The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is showed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ, or, Discourses wherein is shewed how the wisdom, mercy, justice, holiness, power, and truth of God are glorified in that great and blessed work / by William Bates.
London: printed by J. Darby for Nathaniel Ranew and Jonathan Robinson and Brabazon Aylmer, 1674
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
2. Internal, by his natural faculties. By the light of Reason he understood that so long as he continued in his original Innocence, the Creator who from pure goodness gave him his being, and all the happiness which was concomitant with it, would certainly preserve him in the perpetual enjoyment of it. But there was no promise of Heaven annexed to that Covenant, without which Adam could attain no knowledge, nor conceive any hopes of it. If there had been a necessary connection between his perfect Obedience, and the life of Glory, it would have been revealed to him, to allure his will: for there can be no desire of an unknown good. And whereas in the Covenant God principally and primarily regards the promise, and but secondarily the threatening, the exercise of goodness being more pleasing to him than of revenging justice; 'tis said, that God expressly threatened Death, but he made no promise of Heaven: ⟨p. 201⟩by which 'tis evident it did not belong to that Covenant. For it was easier for Man to understand the quality of the punishment that attended sin, than to conceive of Celestial Happiness, of which he was incapable in his animal state.
2. Internal, by his natural faculties. By the light of Reason he understood that so long as he continued in his original Innocence, the Creator who from pure goodness gave him his being, and all the happiness which was concomitant with it, would certainly preserve him in the perpetual enjoyment of it. But there was no promise of Heaven annexed to that Covenant, without which Adam could attain no knowledg, nor conceive any hopes of it. If there had been a necessary connexion between his perfect Obedience, and the life of Glory, it would have been revealed to him, to allure his will: for there can be no desire of an unknown good. And whereas in the Covenant God principally and primarily regards the promise, and but secondarily the threatning, the exercise of goodness being more pleasing to him than of revenging justice; 'tis said, that God expresly threatned Death, but he made no promise of Heaven: ⟨p. 201⟩by which 'tis evident it did not belong to that Covenant. For it was easier for Man to understand the quality of the punishment that attended sin, than to conceive of Celestial Happiness, of which he was incapable in his animal state.